By: Nicole Chen and Claire Keenan
Is the possibility of driverless cars really in the foreseeable future? Do people support a future where the roads operate without drivers? We took to the streets of Sydney to ask people about their thoughts on driverless roads.
Andriana Xilaportas, 21, Wetherill Park, Glue Store
“Honestly it’s a bit of a mixed feeling.”
“It is going to be beneficial for older drivers when they start losing sense of feeling or concentration.”
“I feel like there will be less concentration on roads and people will be on their phones, talking to other people and it might cause more accidents because technology might not be trustworthy.”
Emily Ha, 19, Cabramatta West, University Student
“I think it’s a really good idea, I think it’ll reduce the amount of car accidents, especially really late at night.
“I think it’ll be better for people our age who drink drive or come home really late after clubbing and stuff.”
Linley Briggs, 27, Randwick, Physio
“They’re a really, really positive step because any car accidents are human fault.”
“But for them to work, everyone would need to be driving driverless cars to completely eliminate the human error, so it’s gonna take quite a long time to fully transition.”
Mark Eckert, 25, Randwick, Salesman
“I think they’re probably still five to 10 years away from being reasonably commercially viable but I think once they are, you actually probably will see a smooth transition just because we’ve seen, as of now, that the technology works decently well with human drivers.”
*Participants did not agree to being photographed for the article*